‘Propaganda of the Deed’ as a War Termination Strategy

Abstract

For decades the bulk of academic analyses and findings have maintained a linear interpretation of propaganda of the deed. Propaganda of the deed is linked to actions by non-state actors such as terrorists and militant groups. Indeed, the traditional interpretation has limited the expansion of the term and its application in different academic fields. In this paper, I show that propaganda of the deed should not be exclusive to explaining terrorist’s violent action. Hence, I argue that the military and academics should employ the term to explain a nation’s excessive use of violent action against a belligerent state in modern warfare. Therefore, arguing that non-state actors and states use the propaganda of the deed is not mutually exclusive. For this reason, I focus on the application of propaganda of the deed as a war termination strategy, again insisting that the concept can be successfully applied on the battlefield by a state to subdue its adversary to enter a war termination negotiation, thus bringing an end to the war. In its narrow sense, as a war termination strategy, the concept can assist in transforming our understanding of war termination from the battlefield.